The recovery of oil from subterranean oil-bearing strata is accomplished by employing one or more primary recovery procedures, which are sometimes followed by one or more secondary and tertiary recovery procedures. These secondary and tertiary procedures may be referred to as enhanced oil recovery procedures. Primary oil recovery is usually achieved by penetrating the oil-bearing earth formation with one or more wells and recovering the oil from these wells by utilizing the natural pressure in the subterranean earth strata. In some situations, however, the oil flows too slowly to a producing well, if at all, to be economically viable. When the viscosity of the oil is too high, the reservoir permeability too low, or when the well has been largely depleted, additional physical and/or chemical treatments may be used for recovering additional oil.
The availability of the means for physically and/or chemically treating the formation to increase oil production is particularly limited in remote, desert locations, where the infrastructure to provide the needed materials is generally scarce and expensive. Much of what is needed for improving the recovery of oil from a formation in a remote location must be transported long distances to the site, at significant expense and with some environmental impact. There remains a need for an improved method for selecting the best treatment option for enhancing oil production in a remote location.